<b>Bonhams Dec. 7:</b> DARWIN, CHARLES. <i>On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life</i>. London: John Murray, 1859. $25,000 – 35,000

<b>Seth Kaller:</b> Einstein Agrees to Allow “a Short Book on the Hydrogen Bomb” to Use His Statement Made on Eleanor Roosevelt’s TV Show

<b>Seth Kaller:</b> The Building Blocks of Albert Einstein’s Creative Mind

<b>Seth Kaller:</b> A Unique Manuscript Map of Block Island Sound Including Fisher’s and Gardiner’s Islands, the Hamptons, and Montauk Point

<b>Seth Kaller:</b> J.R.R. Tolkien Writes his Proofreader with a Lengthy Discussion of the Lord of the Rings, Including Criticism of Radio Broadcasts of his Work

<b>Seth Kaller:</b> Six Benjamin Franklin Signed Receipts – Including his Earliest Obtainable Autograph — Acknowledging a Donation to the Famous Library Company He Founded, and Five Payments for His Pennsylvania Gazette

Rare Book Monthly

Book Collectors and Their Libraries from Oak Knoll Books

Book Collectors and Their Libraries from Oak Knoll.

By Michael Stillman

Oak Knoll Books has published the third issue in its series of "Special catalogues," Book Collectors and Their Libraries. This is not the typical Oak Knoll thousand-item catalogue, but a smaller (though taller) illustrated version, focused on book collections and collecting. There are catalogues of great private libraries, often compiled for their dispersion sales. There are odes to book collecting and runs of periodicals as well as books for bibliomaniacs. This is a collection for those who love to collect. Oak Knoll has not attempted to stack this catalogue with everything on its shelves, as some of their catalogues appear to do, but this one provides an excellent sampling. Much more can be found on their website. Here are a few samples of these samples in the "Special Catalogue."

One of the best known of early collectors was Frenchman Jean Grolier. The famed club in New York was named for him. Grolier was noted for placing his books in the most exquisite of bindings. Item 13 is Recherches sur Jean Grolier...by Le Roux de Lincy. This is the large paper version of the first edition of a volume that includes a biography of Grolier, reprints of his correspondence, and a catalogue of his library. Over 600 of the bindings that were once in Grolier's library are known to exist today. This book was published in 1866, three centuries after Grolier died. Priced at $450.

Four centuries after Grolier, Carl Pforzheimer was putting together a magnificent library, the focus being English literature. Not surprisingly, you would find names like Shakespeare in his collection. Pforzheimer was a banker and philanthropist, but is best remembered as an avid book collector. Today his collection of English literature resides at the University of Texas at Austin, while his collection of English romantics was donated to the New York Public Library. Item 1 is the Carl H. Pforzheimer Library, English Literature, 1475-1700. This three-volume bibliography, including detailed descriptions of some 1,500 items, is priced at $10,000.

Here is a smaller library, in multiple ways. It is a Catalogue of the Library of Miniature Books Collected by Percy Edwin Spielmann, published in 1961. It includes over 500 descriptions of these tiniest of books. Item 17. $395.

Of course, no collection ever compared to the one put together by collecting fanatic Sir Thomas Phillipps. The British collector gathered some 100,000 books and manuscripts (mostly manuscripts) during the mid-19th century. Phillipps was obsessed with preserving one of everything, and if he did not quite reach that unreachable goal, a great deal of material which would otherwise be lost exists to this day because of Phillipps' obsession. Much of the manuscript material he collected was not regarded as of much value at the time, but Phillipps ended up broke anyway because he purchased so much. His home became virtually impossible to negotiate, its rooms stacked high and wide with printed matter. A.N.L. Munby published the greatest work on Phillipps, the five-volume set of Phillipps Studies, printed from 1951-1960. Though Phillipps died in 1872, his collection was still being auctioned long after Munby's book was released, over a century after the sale started. Item 36. $400.

<b>Dorothy Sloan Books Dec. 15 & 16:</b> UNITED STATES AND MEXICAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION. EMORY, William Hemsley. <i>Report of the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey, Made under the Direction of the Secretary of the Interior…</i><br>$3,000-6,000

<b>Dorothy Sloan Books Dec. 15 & 16:</b> RICHARDSON, William H. <i>Journal of William H. Richardson, a Private Soldier in the Campaign of New and Old Mexico…</i>. Baltimore: John H. Woods, 1848. $3,000-6,000

<b>Dorothy Sloan Books Dec. 15 & 16:</b> EMORY, William Hemsley. <i>Map of Texas and the Countries Adjacent: Compiled in the Bureau of the Corps of Topographical Engineers; From the Best Authorities…</i> [Washington, 1844]. $7,500-15,000

<b>Dorothy Sloan Books Dec. 15 & 16:</b> THORPE, Thomas Bangs. <i>Our Army at Monterey. Being a Correct Account of the Proceedings and Events which Occurred to the “Army of Occupation”…</i> Philadelphia, 1847. $400-800

<b>Dorothy Sloan Books Dec. 15 & 16:</b> TILDEN, Bryant Parrott, Jr. <i>Notes on the Upper Rio Grande, Explored in the Months of October and November, 1846, on Board the U.S. Steamer Major Brown…</i> Philadelphia, 1847.<br>$5,000-10,000

<b>Dorothy Sloan Books Dec. 15 & 16:</b> [WORTH, WILLIAM J.]. <i>Life of General Worth; To Which is Added a Sketch of the Life of Brigadier-General Wool.</i> New York: Nafis & Cornish; St. Louis, Mo.: Nafis, Cornish & Co., 1847.<br>$200-400